11/3/2013: Finding God
Exodus 3:1-14 New International Version (NIV) Moses and the Burning Bush 3 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.” 4 When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” 5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”6 Then he said, “I am the God of your father,a]">http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+3%3A1-14&version=NIV#fen-NIV-1586a a the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God. 7 The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” 12 And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, youb]">http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+3%3A1-14&version=NIV#fen-NIV-1592b b will worship God on this mountain.” 13 Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.c]">http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+3%3A1-14&version=NIV#fen-NIV-1594c c This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” Moses's conversion experience Moses believes in God but has never met him Every Christian has their own burning bush experience 1) Disrupting sight (the burning bush) 2) Expanding concept Why does God appear as fire? Dependent on fuel but God had his own power "I am" literally translates to the verb; being itself 3) Personal problem Fire: beautiful and scary at once Holiness means that God exposes us; as when we see a human way more talented than us Jonathan Edwards says we would choose most of the attributes of God but his holiness v.2 the angel of the Lord; what is that? Identical but distinct from God; preincarnate Jesus